A Piece of Heaven
by ekrolo2
Summary: It's the little things that matter. (DMC5 related one-shots).
1. Chapter 1

"Why do you keep sighing?" Vergil asked him from across the spot they'd been for... a while. Ever since they'd cut the Qliphoth's roots and severed the demon and human worlds, Dante and his brother had been going at it like old times. Well, almost. They weren't trying to kill each other anymore. It was more like... play fighting but kind of taken seriously. It reminded Dante of better days when they were kids. So, he guessed it was like _old_, old times then.

Nice as it was to hang out with Vergil, though, Dante couldn't help but miss some stuff. "You were down here for a while, right?"

His brother looked at him for a second than at the underworld around them. "Yes," He answered slowly. "Yes, I was."

"Okay, so... What'd you do for food?"

Vergil looked back at him, slightly irritated. "That's what's bothering you? Food? We don't need to eat, as you well know."

"Doesn't make it any less tasty when you chow down on some good grub," He just stared. "What? You're seriously gonna tell me you wouldn't kill for ice cream sundae? Or pizza?!"

As expected, big brother rolled his eyes. Always trying to play it cool. Dante decided to shut up for a change and see if he had anything. He doubted it. Business was so bad up top he couldn't even pay for water or electricity. Plus he'd been punched, stabbed, thrown off a giant ass tree and a million other things in the last month alone. The odds of having something in his pockets was one in a million...

Which is why it took his brain a while to start working when he did find something. Slowly, he pulled whatever it was out and stared at the big white letters saying "Hershey's Milk Chocolate."

It was beaten to hell, a little melted and from what he could see, a day away from its expiration date and probably tasted like crap. Dante didn't give a damn. Grinning, he started unwrapping it when his reflexes kicked in. Instinctively, he leaped away from a sword swipe meant to cut his hand and make him drop the candy.

"What the hell is your problem?" Dante shouted, summoning his new sword back.

Vergil starred daggers at him, tightening his fingers around Yamato. "Give that to me."

Dante's brain stopped working again for a second. When it did, he laughed long and hard enough for his ass to literally fall off. "Oh, brother!" He barked another laugh, keeping himself sharp for when Vergil would inevitably come for him. "Look at you! Mister I don't eat little human food, comin' after me for cheap candy!"

Vergil managed to scowl harder than usual. "I won't repeat myself."

Dante just smirked, slipping the chocolate back in his pocket. "If you want it, you'll have to take it."

* * *

**6 Hours Later**

With a loud crash, Dante collapsed on the ground. His new demon form lasted a few seconds longer before leaving regular old him lying in a crater, trying to catch his breath. He had to give Vergil props: he fought damn hard. Probably the hardest since they'd gotten down there.

Hell, there was even a few times Dante was worried they'd gone back to bad, old times but Vergil trying to snatch a candy bar out of his pocket was proof enough they were still okay. Well, okay was a subjective term. Dante felt pretty damn beaten up this time and Vergil got the candy after all.

_Oh well, guess I'll just have to make do with sweet memories of anchovy- _

Something hit him in the chest. It was really light, no bigger than a pebble. Patting down his chest, Dante grabbed it and found it was half of a candy bar. This made his brain stop working for the third time.

"Well?" Vergil said, walking up to his right side, just barely on his feet. "If you're not going to eat it, then I will."

Dante blinked a few times then smiled. "And miss a sweet meal like this? Not on your life."

* * *

**Hope you guys enjoyed the fic and Devil May Cry 5 both! Also, I would like to thank my editor, Kagari, for fixing up any grammatical & spelling mistakes. **


	2. Chapter 2

"I spy with my little eye something that's-"

"Let me guess, red? Just like the ground, sky and more or less everything else down here?"

"You're half right," Vergil glanced to his left, raising an eyebrow at Dante. His brother was grinning, as usual. "I was gonna say my jacket."

He didn't deign a verbal response to this. An eyeroll was sufficient for Dante to see as they marched on towards... nowhere-in-particular. His brother suggested a walk someplace else, saying he'd gotten bored of standing and fighting in the same spot.

"If we're gonna stick around, might as well check the place out!" Was Dante's reasoning. Vergil didn't feel the need to see any more of Hell. Years spent down here as a thrall then a broken husk was more than enough. Unfortunately, a match to decide to stay or leave ended with Dante as the victor so Vergil complied.

Unlike the Human world, Hell didn't conform to anything like ordinary geography, or laws of physics, or anything a human would consider the norm. Some sections of the countless comprising this place were almost ordinary, resembling various religious imagery of humans about the underworld.

Other places were so bizarre in their convoluted nature they defied rational thought. It was no surprise most of the inhabitants of these places were thoroughly mad themselves. Vergil would sooner take death, it was far kinder to madness.

Dante, feeling adventurous as usual, viewed this as a grand adventure. Even after all these years as a grown man, his little brother was still that mischievous trouble maker heading off someplace to see everything he possibly could. With Vergil, of course, trying to stop him but getting caught up in the latest trip instead. The two even occasionally stopping to fight.

"What're you smiling about?" Dante asked, looking confused. Vergil found himself smiling from his little trip down memory lane and promptly corrected it. This did not dissuade his brother, however. Just the opposite. "Oh, I know! You're thinkin' about Nero's old lady."

The idea was absurd enough for Vergil to almost burst out a laugh. If his guard didn't already slip, he might not have stopped it in time. Instead, he gave Dante a very pointed look.

"What? Am I wrong?"

"More than you could possibly know."

"Well I just thought-"

"An innovation for you."

"If there's a girl out there good enough to loosen up a sour puss like you, she's worth thinkin' about. Especially after seeing the ah... fruit of your loins recently."

"I'm surprised you even know the verse."

"You should've seen me quote Shakespeare."

Vergil answered with another eyeroll, quirking just an inch of his lips up for a moment and at the side Dante wouldn't see. If his brother had any other witty or perverted comment to spew out, it would have to be saved for later. Suddenly, the red sky above them turned pitch black. One could hear thunder off in the distance and yet there was no cloud in sight.

When he spotted the crackling of red lightning overhead, Vergil knew immediately who it was. The red cascading energies focused around three points in the sky. Each one representing the eye of Mundus, Prince of Darkness.

He shouldn't have been surprised. Dante only sealed the murderer away, not killed him. Not even Father succeeded at that. A fact he should've known years ago when he first ended up here... alone and already beaten... young and stupid enough to think he'd avenge Mother and prove himself Father's superior when he couldn't even beat Dante...

It was at that moment Vergil realized history was repeating itself again. There he was, back in Hell and being stared down by the vilest demon to ever be spawned. For the first time in a long time, something gripped his heart, turned his veins into ice and-

"Here." Dante suddenly spoke up. His voice completely normal, as though Mundus was just another low demon they'd take care of. Blinking twice, Vergil's eyes moved away from his smirking brother's face and down to one of the pistols being offered to him. Ebony, was it?

"Bet I can shoot more of his eyes out than you."

Vergil blinked a few more times, not for the first time wondering if his brother was insane. Then, feeling none of the fear threatening him moments ago, he snatched the pistol.

"We'll see about that, little brother," He smiled before the two started their latest contest.

* * *

**A/N: I didn't originally intend another one but the response to the first was so surprisingly positive I figured why not do a Vergil POV one next? **


	3. Chapter 3

"Spawn of Sparda, this is your endAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

"Quit gettin' in my way!"

"Look who's talking!"

The two brothers shouts were drowned out by another barrage of pistol fire from both. Each one aiming to take out the last of Mundus' three eyes hovering in the air. Vergil got the first shot with Dante the second. He almost got the third until Vergil ricocheted a round of his own into it.

Neither one was ready to admit defeat in this contest. Even with their most hated enemy right there. If anything, the idea of showing Mundus how little they thought of him by not taking him seriously at all made the contest all the sweeter.

The Prince of Darkness fired dozens upon dozens of javelins of red demonic energy None of them got anywhere close to their mark. The Sons of Sparda teleported, ran, rolled, jumped out of their way with practiced, even arrogant ease.

Vergil was the one playing it safer, always ensuring none of Mundus' paltry attacks got to him. Dante purposefully goaded the demon, going so far as to wave Dr. Faust as another bullseye.

It was in this mix of dodging that the two tried to blow out the last of Mundus' eyes, to see who would win the newest competition. But every time one was about to get the win, they were stopped by the other.

Eventually, they met in the middle of the battlefield, glaring at one another.

"Stop that."

"All you said was whoever shoots out more of the eyes wins. We never set any rules. Besides," Vergil smirked. "Aren't you supposed to be the gun expert?"

Dante opened his mouth to answer when Mundus fired more javelins. "You think this is a game? I shallAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH MY EYE!"

The brothers, annoyed by this interruption, instinctively jumped back then simultaneously fired two bullets, lodging them right into Mundus' last eye. It exploded in a mess of blood and energy.

"Damn," Vergil muttered, tossing Dante his Ebony back. "A draw."

Mundus wasn't too happy about this. Pretty soon, the darkness overcoming sky seeped into the ground too. Making it disappear right under everyone's feet. Using the last bit of it, Dante and Vergil both jumped high into the air, transforming into their regular Devil forms to fly.

Mundus changed too, taking the form of that white-winged statue Dante encountered about 15 years ago when they fought last time.

"Well, that brings back memories."

The sky overhead started to crack with thunder and lightning. It was coming for them in no time at all. Mundus, ever the coward, hid behind it, trying to kill them from a distance.

"Vergil, take this!" He tossed his brother Balrog. "It's got a mean punch but you're gonna need a minute to rev it up!"

"I expect you to give it to me!"

Dante grinned, taking out the King Cerberus in its Lightning Sansetsukon form. The two flew at full-speed towards Mundus with Dante taking the front. With well-timed swings, Cerberus' electricity struck into the demons, overpowering and dispelling it completely. When Mundus started throwing giant rocks at them instead, Cerberus' Fire Bo staff smashed through them no problem. His last-ditch stalling tactic was firing more of the javelins. Dante broke those with the Ice Chucks with a speed that almost surprised him.

He made sure his Bruce Lee screams were extra annoying just to piss Mundus off a little more.

Vergil, who hung out at the back, pushed Balrog to its limits, focusing absolutely all the power the Devil Arm had inside the right arm. It wasn't until he felt it could possibly start to break that he gave Dante the signal.

"I'm ready!"

"Alright!" Dante shouted back, creating a giant chunk of ice and kicking it right into Mundus. This blocked the demon's field of view just long enough for Vergil fly at maximum speed right for him. The Prince of Darkness tried to match him man to man, swinging his own fist into Vergil's.

He'd immediately come to regret it. The sheer force behind Vergil's punch was so great, not only did it break the outer layer of Mundus' body but blew out a huge chunk of his actual self almost right into the elbow. One little hitch was Vergil being blown back by the force of the collision but that was fine; Dante was ready to step up.

Bringing out Cavalliere, he landed the tricked-out motorcycle right into Mundus' face and kept it there, revving it up. The blades carved right through the shell, making the whole demon spasm from the force. Dante stayed there until he noticed Mundus' only arm left coming to swat him away like a fly. Instead? The Prince of Darkness ended up smacking himself in the face. Dante teleported away at the last second.

Now they both got a good look at what Mundus' face looked like. Vergil for the very first time.

"An appropriate look for scum such as yourself!" He declared before powering up his Devil form to its utmost limits. Putting Yamato at his side, Vergil focused every fiber of his being into the following attack. The largest series of slashes he'd ever make.

Mundus' entire, gargantuan body became a blur of purple energy seconds before it began. The slashes appeared slowly at first, here and there then gradually growing in speed, ferocity, and numbers. In moments, Mundus' entire body flashed constantly with the slashes of Yamato appearing and disappearing within a tenth of a fraction of a second.

Vergil himself couldn't possibly begin to count how many there were. Hundreds? Thousands? More? He didn't have time to even begin considering this. He had a bastard to hurt, severely.

It wasn't until his Devil form vanished and he gasped for air that Vergil finally stopped. Nothing happened, at first. Then, cracks began to appear all over Mundus' body. Then he went to pieces. The entire outer shell hiding his true self didn't so much as a break as it was eviscerated out of existence. The tiny specks of the remains themselves being further cut into nothingness.

They didn't stop there. Mundus' true form, comprised of a hideous mass of arms and fingers was carved to pieces as well. Soon, the Prince of Darkness was little more than an even more unseemly mass of mutilated meat, arms and fingers slashed beyond repair.

"That… was for our mother…"

"And this…" Dante announced from above, focusing all of his own power into his new sword. "Is for our old man!"

Pulling his weapon back, Dante blasted off toward the remains of Mundus falling through the sky. When he pointed the sword in-front, the sheer amount of energy he released along with the force behind his flight made Dante appear like a gargantuan blade streaking across the sky. Aimed for what was left of Mundus' head.

"N-No…. P-P-Pl-" Mundus', somehow, managed to gurgle out a plea but he'd get no mercy from anyone this time. With a giant roar, Dante pierced through the mangled mess that was Mundus' head, destroying it completely.

The sky Mundus morphed everything into transformed into what it was, a non-descript field in the underworld. Mundus' body was the first thing to land, the brothers crashed next. Both left completely exhausted. Nothing else happened for a while. There wasn't some big explosion from Mundus' corpse, no more demons showing up to kill the brothers while they were weak.

The only sound in the whole place, seemingly in the entire demon world, was them just panting for air.

"Vergil…" Dante eventually said, barely managing to look over to his brother lying to his right.

"Y-Yeah…?"

"W-Was that… the most badass jackpot of all time…. Or what?" He managed a grin.

Vergil returned it. "Y-You got that right…"

The two of them laughed together for a long, long time thereafter.


	4. Chapter 4

Devil May Cry, the big red neon sign above Dante's office kept shining on. Sticking out against the ordinary looking town it was in. So did Nero's van as he drove toward the original version of the business started a long time ago.

By his uncle.

That still threw Nero off. Not just because he met the guy during a heated fight where he was trying to kill Dante. He respected the guy a lot and even though he kept the secret from him for years, Nero couldn't hold it against him.

If anything, their connection just made Nero more curious about the smart ass demon killer. He'd heard stories from Nico, Morrison... and V. But he wanted more. Morrison's letters kept things too vague.

A few days after the mess at Redgrave, Nero's curiosity got the better of him. He called up Trish, asking her if they could meet up and just talk. Trish, without any of the usual sass in her voice, agreed. She'd even get Lady and Morrison there too.

Judging by Lady's parked motorcycle out front, she kept part of the deal, at least. Settling his van next to it, Nero went to the fridge, picking up a couple of 1/4 kegs of beer. When he got outside and started making his way inside the office, he heard Morrison's muffled voice through the door.

"That's how it's done, Lady. Not my fault you can't stack up." Morrison smugly grinned at her from the opposite end of the pool table just as Nero came in. "Ah! There he is, the man of the hour!"

"Sorry if I got here late. I grabbed a couple kegs on the way here, you guys mentioned Dante being broke so..."

"That he was, although," Morrison cheekily smiled at the glowering Lady. "He won't be the only one."

She kept scowling then reached into her pocket and slipped out a fifty. Then threw it on the ground.

"Don't sprain something picking it up," With a sweet smile, Lady walked away from Morrison and took one of the kegs out of Nero's hands. "Thanks for buying this, Nero. We're gonna need it with this heat."

"Uhh, sure..." He let her take one past the main desk into what must've been the kitchen. Morrison kept mumbling something about getting the last laugh, taking his sweet time kneeling to the fifty.

"... Need some help?"

"Don't let that she-witch trick you kid, I ain't that old."

"Sure..." Nero replied in his most polite voice, his eyes going over every inch of Dante's office. In simple terms: it looked like crap. Old, beaten up and beyond dirty. It was like one of the kid's rooms back at Fortuna if you blew it up into a whole house.

Dante was lucky Kyrie never saw his place. She'd give him hell for being this much of a slob. Another important thing he noticed was no Devil Arms anywhere. Nero couldn't even feel any demonic energy there period.

"He sold em all," Morrison, as if reading his mind, answered Nero's question. "It's been a bad few months for business and man's gotta pay the bills somehow."

"Really? I've been doing alright in Fortuna."

"Give it time," Morrison groaned into the couch, getting a cigar out. "Business goes up and down. You'll get used to it."

That was worrying. There were a whole lot more mouths he had to feed. If Dante couldn't even make some for himself...

With a loud thudding noise, the doors behind him burst open. It was Trish. "Looks like you got here just-in-time. Pizzas are right out of the oven."

"And the beer is ice cold," Lady came back, holding a bunch of plastic cups and the keg with a tube sticking out. They put both the food and drinks right on Dante's desk.

"And you two give Dante crap for just eating that stuff," Morrison huffed from the couch, getting dirty looks from the two women. "It's a miracle you're in-shape to fight at all."

"Excuse me?!"

"Who do you think you are?"

"Your employer, with a very vested interest in your continued physical performance."

Knowing better than to get involved, Nero took a step back and decided to wait out the argument. When he reached for one of the pizza boxes, he noticed a picture frame on the edge of Dante's desk facing down.

Gingerly, he took it into his right hand and found himself staring at it. It wasn't a photograph but a portrait of a beautiful looking woman. An old one too, probably older than Nero himself.

She wore the same colors as Dante, red and black. Her hair was long and blonde, her eyes a pretty blue. The most striking thing about her was the smile she wore.

That was when Nero remembered what Morrison wrote in one of his letters. "This is... Dante's mom, right...?"

The argument stopped right away with the others staring at Nero and the portrait. Nobody said anything at first, until Trish.

"Yes, it is," She answered softly, once again without any sass in her voice. "That's your grandmother, Eva."

"Eva..." Nero repeated the name, looking back at the portrait. "They killed her, didn't they? The demons?"

"That's right, assassins from an old enemy of your grandfather, Sparda. The former demon king of the underworld, Mundus. He wanted the bloodline extinguished and... Eva died because of it."

"And this prick, this Mundus... He made you or something... right?"

Nero knew right away he didn't do that very... tactfully. From the way Trish reacted to it, glancing away from him, looking actually awkward. Ashamed even.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just... say stupid shit without thinking sometimes."

That modified her, easing some of the tension in the room. With a loud groan, Morrison got out of the coach, making way to a pizza.

"Why don't we eat, drink and do this right, huh?"

For once the women seemed to agree with him. Sitting down around the place, Nero listened to every word from Trish. How Mundus did in-fact create her, to manipulate Dante into a trap by using his feelings for Grandma Eva against him. With a wave of anger he'd rarely seen from her seething out, Trish explained how she betrayed Dante even when she knew it was wrong.

Dante saved her anyway. She returned the favor too, twice, in-fact and helped him kick Mundus' ass back down into Hell.

"I became his full-time partner after that," Trish continued after a glass of beer. "For a couple years it was good, being a part of... regular human society if you can call it that."

That got a laugh out of everyone there. But when Trish sobered up, Nero knew something was off.

"But it didn't stick, around the 24th anniversary of Eva's death, Dante... Started changing."

"That's an understatement," Lady said from the left side of the couch. "He got real moody, quieter and an even bigger slob than usual."

"It got hard being around him, how he didn't seem to care anymore," Trish sighed, looking guilty again. "Eventually, I left for a while, he was starting to make me feel like crap too."

That stunned Nero right into silence, Dante, the guy who with a bigger mouth than him getting depressed?

"There must've been something else to it, right?" Nero looked around. "Dante wouldn't just start changing over an anniversary. Shouldn't he be happy Grandma Eva was avenged?"

The uncomfortable silence afterward told Nero he wasn't going to like what he'd hear next.

"On Mallet Island, where I lured Dante... He met your father, Vergil."

Nero stared at her, feeling like he'd gotten a slap in the face. "N-Nico said, Dante..."

"Killed Vergil, yes. Mundus found your father in the underworld, beat, tortured and transformed him into Nelo Angelo. One of his many lieutenants. Dante fought and killed him, thinking it was just another demon. But when Angelo disappeared... and Eva's gift to both of them was left behind..."

No one said anything. The only sound in the entire room beside the spinning fan overhead was Nero's deep, loud breathing. It took... a lot of willpower not to start smashing the shit out of everything. Living with Kyrie, Nico in the orphanage taught him a lot of self-restraint.

Instead, he focused all his anger into one, single sentence. "If this Mundus guy ever shows his ugly face, I'm gonna murder him."

It took a couple more rounds of drinks to ease the tension. Morrison was the first to speak up next. "Thankfully, Dante got better. Apparently, a few months in Hell and a bratty little kid do wonders for the heart."

"You'd love Patty, Nero," Lady said with a smirk. "She's another brat who wormed her way into your uncle's heart."

"More like annoyed herself into it," Morrison huffed out a laugh, getting chuckles from everyone. Apparently, Dante went on a bad gig and ended up fighting his way through Hell back home. Before he could even rest up, this girly, Patty ended up living with him until the year's end. Her circumstances brought everyone back together again and got Dante back on his feet. Pretty soon, he was back to his old self.

With the mood better, they relaxed, talking about smaller gigs over the years. Even Nero told them about one demon who could throw his own head off and regenerate his body forever from it. Didn't help him survive a bullet to the brains.

Once all the pizzas were gone and the beer settled in, Nero realized he didn't ask them an obvious question. "Hey, where'd Dante come up with the name Devil May Cry?"

Like a switch, the mood flipped. Morrison got real quiet all of a sudden while Trish and Lady awkwardly glanced at each other.

"What?" He asked, still feeling good. "C'mon guys! Isn't this what we're here for?"

To his left, Lady took a big, long swing of beer. "He got it from me, at the end of the first... job I guess, that we did together. It was the day I met him... And Vergil..."

"Oh..." Nero lamely said, understanding why they'd gotten antsy all of a sudden. "Well...Give it to me, anyway, what'd my douchebag old man do?"

"Let's just say Redgrave wasn't the first town he wrecked for more power..." Lady took over as storyteller next.

Years ago, back when she, Dante and Vergil were all barely grown up, Nero's old man stirred up trouble. With Lady's father helping him out. The two of them wanted Sparda's power and to get it, they released a giant demon tower and lured Dante in to steal his amulet. Lady, who'd been tracking her father, got involved too.

Over the next half hour, Nero listened to that damned sibling rivalry between his family, what Arkham did to Lady's mother, how he manipulated them all to steal Sparda's power for himself.

Dante and Lady stopped them. Vergil was lost in the underworld and Arkham... Got what was coming to him, by Lady's own hand. The morning after, Lady saw Nero's uncle cry for his brother and told him it was okay, even a devil can cry if he loses a loved one.

It reminded Nero of what Nico told him, just worded a lot less dickishly.

By the time Lady was over, he could tell they were all pretty tired. A glance at his watch told him they'd been at it for about six hours. It was almost 4AM.

"Well, I should get going," Morrison drawled out, groaning as he got off the couch. "There's a nice, comfy motel bed waiting for me."

"You need a ride there? I'm heading out too." Nero suggested. Morrison shook his head with a smile.

"Nah, a little walk will do me some good," He offered his hand to Nero which he shook. "This was a lot of fun kid, you ever wanna do it again, gimme a ring, you hear?"

"Yes, sir," Nero answered honestly to which Morrison laughed again.

"Sir... Feels good to get some respect for a change. You two could learn something from him."

"How's your back doing?" Lady goaded him with a sweet smile. Morrison just kept on walking.

"I'll get the last laugh, you'll see..."

With an ominous cackle, Morrison was the first one to go. Trish got up next. "Well, better clean this place up now. No way I'll have the stomach for it tomorrow."

Forming electricity in her hand, Trish suddenly fired it across the garbage littering the room. Vaporizing most out of existence.

"There, all done," She wiped her hands. "You guys sure you want to head out? There's plenty of room to crash here."

"I might just take you up on that offer," Lady said while stretching. "I don't feel like driving right now."

Nero shook his head, feeling stiff too. "Can't, I gotta take care of the kids tomorrow, especially the big crazy one making all my stuff."

"How come she's not here?" Lady asked.

"She's got some new project in the works. A perfected Devil Breaker... Whatever that means..."

"Before you go," Trish went back to the desk and brought over the portrait to Nero. "You should take this with you."

"What?! No, Dante would-"

"Be fine about it. You're family, after all."

Nero couldn't argue with that but the way she worded it... It reminded him of Dante trusting Yamato to him and how he botched it. He didn't want that to happen, not to Grandma Eva.

"Tell you what, I'll make a copy of this and bring over the original soon as I can. Okay?"

Trish laughed softly at that, with an approving look in her eye. "Sure, any time you wanna come here, doors open for you."

Nodding in understanding, Nero thought about the perfect place to keep the picture safe when he remembered something.

"Oh crap! I almost forgot, Lady!" He turned to the stretching women behind him. "I got something for ya, Nico made it."

With her at his side, Nero went back into his van. Gingerly, he put Eva's portrait on the driving seat then went back to Nico's corner. There, he smiled upon finding what he was looking for.

"Is that?"

"Yep," He spun around, showing off Nico's replacement... for the replacement... for the original weapon. The third version of Kalina Ann. "Nico felt bad about Dante swipin' both of yours so..."

"Well, it's not her fault that ass got stuck in Hell," Lady took the weapon, inspecting it with an approving look. "Nico's still got it I see. Tell her I said thanks, alright?"

"You got it."

"And... That's not all I wanted to say..." Nero raised his eyebrow, wondering why her mood just did a total one-eighty from snarky to... sad? No, not totally sad...

"I'm glad you... Didn't have to go through with it..."

Nero immediately understood what she meant. Her warning on the Qliphoth made perfect sense now that he knew about Arkham.

"I'm sorry you had to..." Instead of getting sad or maybe angry over his pity, Lady just looked... at peace.

"You're a good kid, Nero. Keep not messing up like we did," She gave him a light punch in the arm. "Or else I'll kick your ass, got it?"

Nero laughed, message loud and clear. "Trust me, I think a few other people'll get to me first if I do that."

* * *

**Once again, I did not expect this to go as far as it has but continued enthusiasm for the fic keeps bringing me back. Now, to address something: I somewhat ignored the official Capcom timeline for DMC here, placing the anime AFTER 2. **

**I did this primarily to make sense of the DMC2 novel which leads into DMC2 proper. In this novel, it's explained Dante and Trish have already alienated from one another despite the DMC anime ending with Dante and the girls being perfectly fine with one another. Hence why I've broken a rule of my own and changed the order of events. **

**I really dislike doing stuff like this, particularly in fics which aren't rewrites but to make sense of the DMC2 era characterization for Dante which the anime happens very, very close to as per the Before the Nightmare novels time line, putting the anime as the end of Dante's melancholy makes far more sense IMO.**

**Hopefully, this doesn't detract too much from the story for you guys.**


	5. Chapter 5

"Vergil." The 20-something Goth kid standing in-front of Dante drawled out the demons name. Almost immediately whatever cheerful mood Dante felt was washed away. The comical face he must've been making got a wry smile out of this V and something was uncomfortably familiar about it...

"Say that again?" Dante pensively leaned closer, intentionally keeping a close eye on V.

The punk let out a soft-laugh. "Come now, Dante, you're not foolish or old enough for your senses to dull. You heard quite clearly what I said."

Something about V saying that rubbed Dante the wrong way, a very specific one reserved for someone he last saw over 15 years ago... On Mallet Island... Where he died. Except not really, according to this weirdo.

"And how do you know this demon, exactly?"

Now it was V who looked like he just drank a crap brand of bourbon. For a second his dull eyes left Dante, and it took him some obvious effort to forcibly bring them back.

"He... and I... were Vergil. Two days past, our original self in an ultimate act of desperation attempted to empower himself by separating his human and demon halves. I," V gestured to himself. "And him represent the twin parts of Vergil, now cleaved from one another."

Before even asking the direct question of how the Hell could Vergil possibly split himself in-two, Dante instantly suspected the possible answer. That by itself made a rare, genuine anger swell up inside him. But he needed to hear it anyway. There was still a small part of him that didn't want to go to that place...

"Assuming you're telling the truth," Dante asked, trying to sound casual. "Prove it, tell me something only Vergil would know."

Reaching into his pocket, V pulled out the book of poetry. Dante didn't pay much attention to it earlier, or the fact he quoted William Blake. But now...

"My memories are still... messy, but I remember this well," He gently rubbed the aged cover. "We.., That is to say you and Vergil fought over most if not all things growing up, typically taking from one another even when we didn't need them. As you typically did for this book, until I marked the cover as my own for all time."

Staring at the book brought back some vague memories of them arguing but it wasn't easy. Dante and Vergil fought over lots of things even before everything went wrong and he tried not thinking about those parts. It was preferable remembering them exploring Redgrave city, vanishing for hours at a time.

V must've noticed Dante's uncertainty, he carefully looked around the office then pointed his cane at Rebellion mantled on the wall over the front desk.

"I also remember him running you through with that blade. A top a tower jutting out of this very town some... 20 years ago?"

"25," Dante huffed out, one of his suspicions confirmed. Only Vergil or in-this-case, a part of him, could possibly know that specific detail. Now, he had to see if the other much more terrible one was too... "Alright, V, I believe you. So why don't you tell my how Vergil pulled off this little splicing trick?"

Vs eyes carefully avoided his again but that wasn't the only thing. His whole posture went stiff, guarded and Dante spotted him gripping his cane a little tighter. With a clenched fist, he fiercely repeated the question. "What did you do?"

"The Yamato," He reluctantly answered. "It was used to separate the two worlds from one another. What if it could do the same for a singular man as well? This was precisely Vergil's thought process, of a rambling, breaking down man grasping at straws-"

Dante didn't waste another second listening to him. With a growl, he practically flew out of the couch and grabbed V by his shirt, hoisting him off the ground. "You piece of shit! What did you do to Nero?!"

V gasped for air, limply hanging in Dante's arms. "T-The boy had the sword in his demonic arm... Vergil had to recover it... "

With another growl, Dante threw V across the office into the opposite wall. It was like watching a little girls stuffed animal soar through the air. Landing hard enough to dent it, V just lied there, coughing and failing to get back up. Dante couldn't help himself, just imagining Vergil doing that to Nero... His brother always found a way of getting under his skin like almost no one else could. But this? This might've just been his master piece of douchebaggery.

Before he could give half-Vergil the ass whooping he deserved two familiar demons, a cat and a giant bird, showed up. One of them could be mistaken for an ordinary panther, if you didn't see it blob out of the ground. The other one stuck out thanks to the giant mandibles on the sides of its beak.

"Easy there tough guy," The bird said in a really grating voice. "Want the boss? You gotta go through us."

The cat growled in-agreement, barring its fangs. Dante couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, I'm shakin' in my boots! What ever will I do against a couple Mallet Island rejects."

Shadow growled, taking a couple steps closer while Griffon started circling around him.

"Stop!" V shouted, laboriously getting back on his feet. "Both of you, this is not the time to fight one another."

"Tell that t'him!" Griffon squawked. "He's the one tryin' to wring your neck!"

"Y'know, you sounded a lot less annoying before."

"Be that as it may," V cut in-between them, sounding more forceful than in any other point so far. "Relax, nothing ill will happen to me."

Reluctantly, the rejects backed off. Shadow growled one last time and Griffon gave Dante a dirty look but they listened.

"Neat trick," Dante commented, his anger already going back to the usual simmer it was in all-Vergil related things.

"A mutually beneficial partnership."

"Sure," He snorted, walking to his desk. Falling gracefully into his old chair, Dante reached for the bottom right drawer where he kept something for when him and Lady felt down. Probably the only thing still worth a damn place for a good buck: Balvenie 50 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whiskey. Something he got instead of cash for a gig. Dante usually wasn't much of a drinker but when a certain... mood took him, a couple good shots didn't hurt.

Filling a couple small glasses, Dante immediately took his down in one gulp. V coughed up a lung by the time he finished. Looking a little closer, some things from Vergil were there. His eyes, the overly serious way he talked. Then there were the Mallet Island rejects hanging around...

"What the hell happened to you after we fought?" Dante asked, his voice getting sullen.

V soundly beat his chest in the coughing fit. "Eternal oblivion... Or so that man thought. Yet his will persisted. Even after numerous defeats and mutilation at the hands of Mundus, this kept him from being completely destroyed. But... The extensive damage had been done...Yamato was lost along with much of Vergil's power. For years... Decades... He tried finding a way out, battling endlessly by whatever means necessary. Yet even a strong will can hold on for so long. The fragmented body became weaker and weaker. Soon, Vergil could not even stand up to a single one of Hell's lowest demons. Were it not for a shard of Yamato serving as his last beacon, eternal death would have claimed him."

"And now it's gonna get a whole lotta other innocent people instead," Dante sighed, shaking his head. "Goddamn it Vergil... Always making things harder than they need to be..."

"Indeed," V said with a surprising conviction. "Cut off from my demonic self... I have received a clarity I've not enjoyed in many years. I do not ask for your pity, for I do not want or deserve it. All I ask of you, brother, is a chance I surely do not deserve. A chance... To be rid of my nightmares, at last."

Nightmares. Glancing at Mom's portrait nearby, Dante knew all about those pretty well.

* * *

**A/N: So, this is a break from the stories thus far in two ways. It's set during DMC5 proper instead of after and the conclusion is far optimistic than the previous ones. This second fact alone made me question if it should be part of "A Piece of Heaven" or as its own thing but for convenience sake, I opted to release it in this set.**


End file.
